New Books, a New Coin, and a First in the Gulf: Israel Celebrates 75
Israel celebrated the 75th anniversary of its independence on Tuesday night and Wednesday. Many celebrations in Israel were marked by reflections on the challenges Israel faces, while some celebrations outside of Israel were possible only because of diplomatic advances that would have been unimaginable at Israel’s founding.
The Media Line spoke with Israeli diplomats, authors and a Jewish American celebrating Israeli Independence Day who are involved in new and interesting happenings around Israel’s diamond anniversary.
Israelis Celebrate in the Gulf States
With the signing of the Abraham Accords that initiated diplomatic ties between Israel and the United Arab Emirates, the Israeli Consulate in Dubai opened its doors in January 2021. Liron Zaslansky has been serving as the consul general since August 2022. Previously, she held Foreign Ministry posts in Israel, Belgium, India, Germany, and Costa Rica.
Israel’s Consul General in Dubai Liron Zaslansky. (Screenshot: Twitter/Liron Zaslansky)
Consul General Zaslansky enthusiastically told The Media Line that Israel’s partners in the Abraham Accords will this year officially celebrate the Jewish state’s independence for the first time.
“We are actually going to have our first two official events to celebrate Independence Day. One will be hosted by the embassy in Abu Dhabi, and one by us, by the consulate general here in Dubai. We are planning two big celebrations as it should be for the 75th anniversary of the State of Israel and it’s very special to have that occasion here in the UAE,” Consul General Zaslansky told The Media Line.
The two events will happen next Thursday and the Thursday after that.
“On every occasion we have had, we are getting a lot of positive responses because there is a lot of curiosity about what is Israel and what is Israel all about,” she said. “For example, back in November, we had an event with an Israeli singer and the responses were very, very positive. They were like, ‘Wow, you have very beautiful music; we didn’t know!’ This is part of our efforts to have as much exposure as we can to Israeli culture here in Dubai and the United Arab Emirates.”
Zaslansky said there was among Emiratis virtually no pushback against the Abraham Accords due to political developments in Israel and that “we feel welcome.”
During Ramadan, she hosted an Iftar at her house, which was very well received by the Emirati guests. “We are building real friendships here,” according to the Consul General.
“The most special thing about the UAE is that it is a place that makes you feel welcome and at home very quickly, no matter where you came from,” she explained. “They have the ability to make it a home for such a varied population. It’s very admirable; what the leadership is doing is outstanding in my eyes.”
The consul general said that while Israelis residing in the Emirates are not obligated to register with the Israeli Embassy or Consulate General, “My estimation is that there are about 1,000 to 2,000 Israelis living in the UAE.”
Looking toward the celebratory events for Israel’s Independence Day, Zaslansky says, “We will have a live performance by an Israeli artist which I will not disclose—a very prominent and rooted Israeli one in Hebrew. We are going to have Israeli-style food, Israeli wine, [the Israeli snack food] Bamba, and we’re going to have cotton candy and try to make it as Israeli as we can.”
About 300 miles from Dubai and 1,000 miles from Israel, an Independence Day celebration was being prepared in Bahrain, one of Israel’s newest diplomatic partners.
The event, set to feature a barbeque and a musical show, will be the second celebration of Israel’s independence held in the country, less than three years after Israel and Bahrain normalized relations through the US-mediated Abraham Accords.
Israeli Ambassador to Bahrain Eitan Na’eh has been Israel’s ambassador to Bahrain for the past two years. Before that, he served in diplomatic positions in the UAE, Turkey, the UK, Azerbaijan, the US, and at the Foreign Ministry in Israel.
Israeli Ambassador to Bahrain Eitan Na’eh. (Courtesy)
Ambassador Na’eh told The Media Line that a small barbeque at the diplomatic residence was planned for Wednesday, while a larger celebration would be held in late May. That event will feature Israeli food and dancing performances for hundreds of guests.
“Guests will be from a growing list of contacts that we have developed in the year and a half that we are here. Government, academia, press, a lot of business people, friends, and Israelis that will come specially to celebrate with us,” Na’eh said.
Na’eh said that Bahrain-Israel relations have improved even in the 2 ½ years since he began his position.
He noted that in the past year, more Bahrainis, especially businesspeople, have been visiting Israel.
“They are going to Israel with a lot of stereotypes and world perception of what they thought, what they saw on TV and read in newspapers. In our experience, they come back with 180-degree different views about Israel,” he said.
Na’eh expressed hope for a deepening of relationships between the countries, especially through an increase in tourism on both sides.
“Tourists bring wisdom and consume food and consume culture. Visits bring back memories and photos and help normalize the picture of each other’s countries,” he said.
Commemorative Coin Project
In America, real estate developer Bobby Rechnitz was working on a commemorative coin to celebrate Israel’s 75th anniversary.
He spoke to The Media Line about his efforts to launch the coin, which is set to feature an image of the late Prime Minister Golda Meir, who served from 1969 to 1974.
Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir, then foreign minister, January 1964. (Willem van de Poll/Creative Commons)
Rechnitz said that he has been promoting nonpartisan pro-Israel causes for the past several years, including supporting the Iron Dome, Israel’s anti-rocket defense system funded in large part by the US, and promoting an initiative to present Israeli Prime Minister and President Shimon Peres with a Congressional Gold Medal.
He sees the commemorative coin project as another nonpartisan way to foster the US-Israel relationship.
The bill proposing minting the coin has already been submitted to the US House of Representatives and will soon be submitted to the Senate, Rechnitz said. He anticipated that it would take two or three years for the project to come to fruition.
“We need a two-thirds House approval. We are very confident that we will get it, and the kickoff is this luncheon and event that we are having in Congress this Thursday, commemorating Yom Ha’atzmaut,” Rechnitz said, referring to Israel’s Independence Day by its Hebrew name.
He explained the choice of Golda Meir by pointing to both her American background—born in Ukraine, Meir spent her childhood and young adulthood in the US before moving to Israel—and her status as one of the world’s first female heads of government.
“Keep in mind that [this is] Israel in the 1960s, before many of the independence movements had a woman leader. I think highlighting that, and highlighting that Israel was and is a progressive and thriving democracy is especially important at a time like this,” Rechnitz said.
Mentioning the current upheaval regarding the proposed judicial reforms, Rechnitz said that his coin could symbolize unity at a time when politics threatens to tear the country apart.
“We come from a wonderful history. People are converging from all over the world to build this great country. We need to find more projects that are non-partisan and non-political that we could put our hearts and our feelings behind,” he said.
Prolific Authors Pen Israel at 75
A new book from well-known American-Israeli author Michael Oren poses questions about Israel’s future 25 years from now, or 100 years from its founding.
The book 2048: The Rejuvenated State, which is being published in English, Hebrew, and Arabic, attempts to seriously consider Israel’s future in the way that early Zionists debated Israeli policy even before the state was established.
“To ensure a similarly successful second century—and overcome threats to our existence—we must begin talking about Israel’s future,” Oren said.
The book addresses questions of health care, foreign policy, the judicial system, the peace process, and Diaspora-Israel relations, among others.
American-Israeli author Daniel Gordis, who is best known for his book Israel: A Concise History of a Nation Reborn, spoke to The Media Line about celebrating a milestone Independence Day in a tense political atmosphere.
He mentioned the many reasons to celebrate Israel on its 75th anniversary: a booming economy, leadership in the field of technology, peace with many of its Arab neighbors, a strong military, and a population 12 times what it was at Israel’s founding.
“But in the last several months, a new government with profoundly illiberal tendencies has come to power,” Gordis said. “Everything that Israel has accomplished could well be threatened were Israel to become an illiberal democracy or a non-democracy, if proposed judicial reforms were to move forward.”
The protest movement against the judicial reforms, which has taken to the streets every Saturday night for the past four months, is a source of hope and “an explosion of love for the country,” he said.
Gordis said that his new book Impossible Takes Longer is meant to open the questions of why Jews decide to create a state and explore the ways in which the country has and has not lived up to its founding goals.
Crystal Jones contributed to this report.
